Data the Key to Better Yield and Profits in 2019

As growers look for ways to cut costs and improve yields, improved data analysis tools are proving to be a big help. Each growing season the amount of data available to farmers and the tools to analyze that data get better. In 2018, the Encirca system from Pioneer proved extremely valuable in tracking crop development and in discovering problems in the field. Ken O’Brien, with Granular, says satellite imagery is a good example, “Often times, we find our problems with the combine when it is too late to do anything about it. With near daily satellite images, growers can find problems and fix them before the damage is permanent.”

O’Brien told HAT that the nitrogen management tool in the Granular system will be a big help following the big harvest of 2018, “Knowing how much P and K we just removed with this big crop, growers can now make plans to insure we have the right level of nutrients in the soil so we can get the crop off to a good start.”

But these data tools are evolving and doing more than just providing agronomic information. O’Brien says they are now able to aid farmers in making key business decisions, “Field by field, knowing the profit and loss from each individual field. This system allows a producer to track each field throughout the growing season so he always knows where he is at and can react accordingly.”

In 2019, one of the biggest decisions will be what to plant, based on rotation and the economics, “This program can help growers determine that is the most profitable crop to plant in any given field,” stated O’Brien. “The program can show the grower, based on the budget and historical yields, what crop should they plant in a specific field.” This level of sophistication is allowing farmers to manage their farms in ways never before possible.